The present invention relates to pill crushing systems, and more particularly relates to a pill chip guard which acts to inhibit pill chips from escaping the pill crushing chamber during the pill crushing operation. In another aspect, the invention relates to nestable cups having improved pill crushing features and interfacing dimensions which inhibit migration of the powdered pill material from reaching the top perimeters of the cups. In yet another aspect, the invention relates to nestable cups where the bottom cup and top cup each have a plurality of spaced locking lugs configured to engage complementary spaced recesses within a respective cup holder so as to ensure that the one or the other bottom or top cup and its respective cup holder rotate together upon activation of the pull crushing system.
The grinding or crushing of pills into powder form may be necessary when, for example, the person has trouble swallowing whole pills due to throat problems. This is a common need in nursing homes and hospitals. While the very first pill crushing device was most likely the mortar and pestle (which is still used today), more technologically advanced pill crushing devices have been developed over the years (manually or electrically driven) which have various designs that offer advantages over the mortar and pestle, such as making the pill crushing operation quicker, easier and safer (e.g., by preventing cross-contamination between different Rx pills ground in succession), for example.
Some pill crushing devices utilize a pair of disposable cups which may be nested together with the pill located therebetween. As one cup is rotated relative to the other cup, the pill is ground into a powder. The top cup is removed, leaving the powered pill inside the bottom cup. An additive such as juice or applesauce, for example, may be added to the cup and mixed with the powder to form a liquid or slurry which the patient may more easily swallow. An example of such a nested cup pill crushing device may be seen in commonly owned U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2012/0160946, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. While the device of the '946 publication provides advances over the prior art, there remains a possibility that some pill chips may unintentionally escape from between the cups during the crushing operation. It would furthermore be desirable to improve the crushing of the pills into a finer powder to ensure uniform mixing with the liquid additive and ease of swallowing. It would be yet furthermore desirable to provide nesting cups having differing geometries which interface in a manner inhibiting the migration of the fine powder from reaching the top perimeters and spilling out from between the nesting cups. While the devices disclosed within these references provide, to various degrees of suitability, the ability to crush pills into a fine powder, there remains the possibility that the bottom cup or top cup may unintentionally disengage with its respective cup holder thereby minimizing or elimination the requisite rotational grinding interaction between the nested cups. As such, it would be desirable to provide nesting cups having improved cup/cup holder interfaces to minimize or eliminate cup migration during rotational grinding of the loaded pills. Furthermore, it would be desirable to fabricate improved nestable cups through a thermoforming or vacuum forming operation.